Basketball

The first women's intercollegiate basketball game took place between
Stanford and the University of California on April 4, 1896. Stanford
won.

The Harlem Globetrotters are the only coed professional basketball
team. In 1985 the team picked Olympian Lynette Woodward as its first
female member.

The Women's Basketball Association, a professional basketball
league, was founded in 1977. The WBA started with eight teams—Dayton,
New Jersey, New York, Houston, Milwaukee, Chicago, Iowa, and
Minnesota—and lasted three seasons.

In 1977, Lucy Harris became the first woman to be drafted by an NBA
team (New Orleans Jazz) and then in 1979, Ann Meyers signed an NBA
contract for $50,000 for one year with the Indiana Pacers. Neither ever
appeared in a game.

Nancy Lieberman, the
outstanding basketball player from Old Dominion College in Virginia,
played for Springfield, Mass. of the U.S. Basketball League in 1986,
becoming the first woman in history to play in a men's professional
league.

The U.S. Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts,
began inducting members in 1959 but it was not until 1992 that the first
women were inducted. They were Nera White, a 10-time Most Valuable
Player in Amateur Athletic Union tournaments in the 1950s and 1960s, and
Lucia Harris-Stewart, a member of the first U.S. Olympic women's
basketball team in 1976. Through 2001, ten women have been inducted into
the Hall of Fame as players. Also, Judy Conradt, Billie Moore, Pat
Summitt, and Margaret Wade have been inducted as coaches. In addition,
Senda Berenson Abbott, a.k.a. “The Mother of Women's Basketball,”and
Bertha Teague were inducted as contributors, making it 16 women in
all.

The American Basketball League (ABL) began in 1996 and was very popular with fans but unfortunately
lost money and could not afford to stay in existence. The league decided
to shut down in December, 1998.

In 2007, the WNBA Sixth Woman Award was given out for the first
time. Plenette Pierson, now in her sixth season, was the 2007 Sixth
Woman Award recipient.

In 2012, Pat Summitt, the University of Tennessee women's basketball coach, retired with more wins than any other collegiate coach in any sport. Summitt led the Lady Vols to eight national championships and 1,098 wins, the most in major-college basketball history. During the 2011-2012 season, Sports Illustrated named Summitt Sportswoman of the Year. That same year the NCAA gave her the NCAA President's Gerald R. Ford Award for her leadership in intercollegiate athletics. She was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award handed out by the government.